Self-Driving Trucks Under Scrutiny
February 6, 2023
California is considering rules to allow use of large self-driving semitrucks, following claims that they would be more efficient and improve road safety. But labor unions are pushing first for a new law they say is needed to protect truckers’ jobs. For Steve Viscelli, focusing on truckers over technology makes sense. As he writes in Issues, government should prioritize policies that maximize the benefits of self-driving trucks to workers and communities, to avoid a trucking system “where humans are simply poorly paid attendants to robots, working in cramped and lonely conditions, with little sleep, and few prospects.”